Business As Usual After March 8: What Hypocrisy!

AMRITSAR: On the morning of March 8, the much hyped Women’s Day, while flipping through a magazine at a doctor’s clinic, I read the following lines highlighting the importance of women…

Choli ke peeche kya hai….. You are my chammak challo… Tu cheez badi hai mast mast…Sheila ki Jawaani….Munni Badnam hui darling tere liye…

Women are not item numbers…They are not Chikni Chamelis…They are definitely not fevicol….They have not been put on this planet to be mocked at…or to be scoffed at….A woman is human….as human as a man is….Respect Women….Full Stop’

The above extract which I read as a message from a magazine left me confused, perturbed, disturbed and pondering about the hypocrisy of our society and by society I wish to include all… you, me and everybody.

An item song when played on the dance floor after gulping a few drinks with a fancy DJ in the background becomes a peppy number for all of us, but when the same song is played by a spoilt brat directed towards our sisters and daughters on the road, it is branded as a wolf whistle and is branded as a vulgar song.

A Honey Singh turns into a Money Singh by mouthing crassy and lewd lyrics…A Kareena, a Katrina or a Malaika walk away with all the accolades and the moolah after doing their fevicol chameli and munni acts by branding their acts as item numbers…but when the same song renders ordinary and hapless women on the road as helpless victims, does a Kareena or a Katrina come to their rescue?

Does this mean such vulgar and crass lyrics are foot tapping and entertaining as long as it happens to someone else on the road and does not touch our families?

The fact is that hypocrisy is a trait which exists abundantly in all of us. We are the same men who will be highly polished and elegant in a jovial mood, but will change the colour of our behaviour and language, the moment we are pushed the wrong way. No wonder, in a fit of rage we can stoop to low levels, and will start uttering expletives BC and MC as if we are highly qualified doctorates in expletive warfare.

Here, BC and MC certainly does not stand for Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Commerce, but is in fact directed towards those adorable women who are an integral part of our lives.

Agree or disagree, whether response is a bouquet or a brickbat, a garland or a gaali, I can easily conclude that a Women’s Day will cease to have any importance if the hypocrisy we live and breathe day in and day out, is not eradicated. Unless, we as a society do not change our flawed patriarchal mindset, celebrating such days will cease to have any importance. Till then, celebrating March 8 by branding it as Women day is just an attempt to garner self respect, as this show-shaa, hype and hoopla creates a false impression in society and raises our social bar that we are champions of the women’s cause.

Fact of the matter is that with rapid globalization, a market place has emerged where ‘pseudo women adoration’ is a commodity and marketing this adoration is an industry. It is just another day meant to fill already steep and deep pockets of Archies and Hallmark Cards having fancy and heavy sounding messages about the importance of women.